Cinematic Distractions

[dulcedemon]

The Decameron (2024):
The darkly amusing onslaught of plague rats animation that begins each episode is what sucked me into this vortex of ruthlessness and passion. It's nothing like the 1971 film written and directed by Pier Paolo Pasolini. It's inspired by the source material not based upon it. Since it's so new, having been released only two months ago, I won't go into too much detail.
Some nobles and a handful of their servants seek to escape the Black Death (bubonic plague) by holing up in a luxurious villa at the owner's invitation for what is supposed to be a grand celebration. If that sounds a bit like The Masque of the Red Death, it is. The celebration doesn't go off quite as planned. For one thing, their host is absent from his own engagement party. The few remaining servants at the villa convey his fond excuses, but it soon becomes evident to his guests that something is amiss. Everyone remains calm and mannerly at first, but circumstances involving but not limited to several uninvited and unpleasant guests cause the situation to devolve into a debauched fight for survival.
My spouse described it as The Masque of the Red Death meets Breaking Bad. I agree in that it's tough to remain sympathetic toward any one character from start to finish or even have sympathy for them in the first place. Some are more insufferable than others, but the one I initially found the most repugnant became the one I most adored by the end. It's infuriating and heartbreaking, but it's also hilarious, and a little sexy. It's a clever dark comedy made for mature audiences. I would describe it more like The Black Adder meets The Masque of the Red Death with perhaps just a hint of Flesh + Blood (1985). I'm not singling out any of the actors because everyone in this is brilliant. I look forward to more projects from series creator Kathleen Jordan.

Laapataa Ladies (2023):
I had a feeling this one would be special. The animated opening credits are sweet and romantic, plus they thank Indian Railways. It's a promising start.
Laapataa means missing or lost. The story has romance, drama, comedy, feminist subtext, and trains. The humor takes jabs at patriarchy, misogyny, religious and cultural taboos, and corruption in law enforcement. For example, when accompanying your newlywed buddy to the local police station to report his bride as missing, you might advise him to remove the nice watch he was given at his wedding, so the cops can't demand it as a bribe.
Inspector Manohar (Ravi Kishan) is quite a character. With his constant tobacco chewing, he is almost a cartoon with the faces he makes. Despite a harsh introduction in which he has an old lady sing to get her son's bail reduced, he is actually competent at his job and a relatively decent person.
At the heart of the story are two newlywed couples, Deepak Kumar (Sparsh Shrivastava) and Phool Kumari (Nitanshi Goel), and Pradeep Singh (Bhaskar Jha) and Jaya Tripathi Singh (Pratibha Ranta). They are just two of many couples that have held their weddings on the same auspicious date. The brides are identically attired and completely veiled. No one can see their faces, and the ladies can hardly see anything through their veils.
Several such couples board the same train. The two aforementioned couples are seated in the same compartment. It's the middle of the night when the train stops at Deepak's village. In the darkness, he mistakes Jaya for Phool. He doesn't realize his error until he arrives home with her and his parents lift her veil. Phool is left on the train with Pradeep, who mistakes her for Jaya. Phool realizes that something is amiss as soon as she gets off the train. She hides from Pradeep and remains at the train station.
Solving the mix-up should be as simple as taking the women back to their husbands, but a married woman accepting a ride from a strange man would be a disgrace. They also can't return to their parents' homes without bringing dishonor. The ladies themselves complicate the matter. Phool is very young and has never left home before. She doesn't even know the name of her husband's village. Jaya is deliberately deceptive and gives the authorities false information. While the police take their time sorting out the mess, the ladies adapt to their new surroundings and cope the best they can. There is quite a bit of ACAB, but the payoff is worth it.

Guntur Kaaram - Highly Inflammable (2023):
Those who remember the old sitcom Happy Days should just imagine a character like Fonzie as the head of a thriving chili pepper growing empire that he inherited from his father. Instead of being able to hit a malfunctioning jukebox just right, he can flick a cigarette and make vehicles explode into the air, then roll over several times before crashing back down to the ground. Lot of ridiculous maneuvers like that coupled with exaggerated macho cool posturing worthy of parody are to be expected. It's also a family drama, and a musical.
Apparently, the chili business can be pretty brutal. Venkata Ramana (Mahesh Babu) was partially blinded as a boy due to violent sabotage committed by a rival chili grower. The turmoil over the tragedy causes his parents to divorce. His mother returns home to her father and his political ambitions. She remarries someone of her father's choosing and has another son. Ramana is disowned and abandoned by his mother in every way except on paper.
Many years later, Ramana's estranged maternal grandfather asks him to sign a document stating that he is nothing to the family and has no claim to his mother's name or assets. His father belongs to a lower caste. Having to acknowledge such a son would hamper his mother's political career. Ramana reuses to sign unless and until his mother disowns him to his face.
Despite being embroiled in familial conflict and having a business to run, chili pepper Fonz-Ramana still finds time to fall in love with an Instagram influencer, Amulya (Sreeleela). The chauvinism curve is steep, but he means well. Awkwardly, Amulya is the daughter of Ramana's estranged grandpa's lawyer. Basically, her dad is the guy tasked with hounding him to sign the papers.
I'd like to know what the chili pepper budget was for this production. There are chili peppers everywhere. By basketful and truckload, bright red chili peppers are a feature of almost every dance number and fight scene. They are flying through the air, strewn all over the ground, mounds and mounds of chili peppers.
Perhaps it's just the luck of the draw, but Guntur Kaaram reinforces my association of Telugu language movies with over-the-top action epics featuring an abundance of naughty (by cultural and religious standards) behavior such as smoking, drinking, and dance numbers in which members of the opposite sex grind against each other. When Ramana and Amulya dance together for the first time, they've both been drinking, and Ramana smokes while they're doing the Bollywood bump and grind.
I needed a late-night movie with subtitles that I could watch with the sound turned down. It runs a little long, but the dance numbers make up for it. I could have done worse.

Chabuca (2024):
I thought I knew how this story would end. I have seldom been so glad to be completely wrong. For those not familiar with Ernesto Pimentel whose life is the subject of this biopic, don't look up any information beforehand. Just take the incredible ride this movie offers.

The Fearless Vampire Killers (1967):
From this entry on down, I probably should just apologize over and over again, but I'm not going to do that.
Anyone who has followed these movie lists of mine for an appreciable length of time knows that I hold Polanski's The Ninth Gate in high regard. If I were to write a best movies of all-time list, it would be on it. Of course, I'm also known for being partial to Luciferian themes.
My spouse introduced me to The Ninth Gate shortly after I moved in with him. The only Polanski film that I had seen prior to that was Rosemary's Baby. After watching it, I wanted to see something closer to the beginning of Polanski's career as a director. We had a brand new subscription to a then seven-year-old DVD rental service by the name of Netflix. The Fearless Vampire Killers was our fifth DVD rental. While not the first feature length film from Polanski, I chose it because it stars Sharon Tate and the director himself along with Jack MacGowran. I like that it sort of spoofs the serious Dracula films from production companies such as Hammer Studios that were popular during the same decade. That's not to say it isn't a straightforward vampire movie, but it benefits greatly from being able to laugh at itself from time to time.
Seasoned vampire hunter, Professor Abronsius (Jack MacGowran), and his young apprentice, Alfred (Roman Polanski), clearly realize the absurdity of the predicaments they get into as they try to rid a small Transylvanian village of a persistent vampire with a big appetite. Count von Krolock (Ferdy Mayne) has already drained several of the locals dry by the time the hunters arrive. The villagers are afraid to confront him. They lock their houses up tight at night, drape garlic wreaths everywhere, and perform folk rituals meant to ward off evil. It's obvious that none of it works because people keep getting bitten. The hunters set up shop at the local inn, where Alfred falls in love with the innkeeper's daughter Sarah (Sharon Tate), who promptly gets abducted by the count.
There are two different versions of this movie. The easiest way to tell them apart is the opening credits. If it doesn't begin with a goofy cartoon of Professor Abronsius and Alfred fighting a vampire, it's the original cut as intended by the director, which was released under the title Dance of the Vampires. The version with the cartoon prologue is as MGM edited it for release in the United States. It was edited and dubbed to emphasize the comedic bits, and it was given the title The Fearless Vampire Killers, or Pardon Me, But Your Teeth Are in My Neck. The score was composed by Krzysztof Komeda, who also did the music for Rosemary's Baby. I found out two interesting things about Komeda while reading up on the background of this film:
1) He met with an untimely demise in 1969 while roughhousing with a friend at a drunken party.
2) There is a crater on Mercury named in his honor: https://planetarynames.wr.usgs.gov/Feature/15083
The special features on the blu-ray edition include the promotional short Vampires 101 with Max Wall as Professor Cecil Havelock-Montague, Ph.D., LL.D., B.A.T., who proffers a quick lesson on vampires and how to kill them. The cartoon from the MGM edited United States release, and the original theatrical trailer are also included.

Murder by Death (1976):
I pulled this one from the murky waters of childhood recollection. I needed an inspirational touchstone to jog my memory for something I haven't written yet. There are several other titles that would have been a better fit, but they were either not available or beyond my means to acquire.
I'm not exactly sure when I first saw Murder by Death. It was sometime in the early 1980s. My grandparents wanted to watch it. My grandmother was into it primarily for David Niven. My grandfather liked Peter Falk, who was still making episodes of Columbo when this was made. I recall that both of them doubted but were anxious to find out if Truman Capote could act.
Given his character, the kind of person Lionel Twain represents, Capote being the least experienced cast member was a total advantage. I imagine a modernized Lionel Twain would have a podcast on which he would gleefully deride all the world-famous experts in sleuthing. He would likely engage Inspector Milo Perrier (James Coco) in a social media flame war. I have no doubt that he would be involved in cryptocurrency schemes.
I don't think it could be done now. Much of the dialogue would have to be rewritten. Frankly, beyond rewritten, if someone wanted to make this palatable for the present day, the script would have to be gutted. The bulk of the humor is sexist, ableist, and racist.
Peter Sellers plays Inspector Sidney Wang. The first name Sidney is a nod to Sidney Toler. I guess you could say that Inspector Wang is modeled after Charlie Chan in every way. The most offensive lines come from Sam Diamond (Peter Falk), who is a crude knockoff off Humphrey Bogart as Sam Spade. Two more Dashiell Hammett characters are represented by Dick and Dora Charleston (David Niven and Maggie Smith). They play their roles much like the original The Thin Man movies. They nailed it right down to the little dog. They're witty, a bit sarcastic, always well-mannered, and any hour is cocktail hour as far as they're concerned. I'm not familiar enough with the works of Agatha Christie to critique Miss Jessica Marbles (Elsa Lanchester) or Milo Perrier (James Coco). Sherlock Holmes and Watson were originally included in this assemblage of the greatest sleuths of fiction, but all of those scenes were cut.
It's dated and highly offensive, but there are a number of silly and relatively innocuous bits that hold up well. Lionel Twain lives at 22 Twain Lane. It's full of dumb little jokes like that.
The first few times I saw this as a kid, Bensonmum, Sam Diamond, and Milo Perrier were my favorite characters. As an adult, most of my enjoyment is derived from supporting characters like Tess Skeffington (Eileen Brennan), and of course, Lionel Twain. Sir Alec Guinness and Nancy Walker make a good pairing as butler and maid. I didn't appreciate Nancy Walker's role as Yetta back then. I was only six or seven years old the first time I saw this. She gives a terrific performance despite having no lines.
What aggravates me the most about Murder by Death now is that they had Richard Narita right there but cast him as a sidekick to a white guy doing yellowface. Too young to play Inspector Wang? They could have aged him with make-up. Too inexperienced? Okay, fair enough, but why not pair him with an actor like James Hong, Kam Fong, or even George Takei?
The art for the opening credits was done by Charles Addams. David Grusin composed the appropriately whimsical yet dramatic score. It's worth it just for the clever and stylish opening sequence. It can probably be found on YouTube or somewhere, so you can spare yourself the rest.
I bought the original DVD release. The film is presented as it was shown on television in standard aspect ratio. I wanted that retro feel. It was also quite cheap. The extras include a short interview with Neil Simon about the making of Murder by Death, brief talent bios, the trailer for Murder by Death, and another trailer for The Cheap Detective (1978) starring Peter Falk.
In the interview, Neil Simon mentions that he didn't want Truman Capote. He had a few other actors whom he doesn't specify in mind. I'm glad he didn't get his way on that. He talks about how Orson Welles was tapped to play Sidney Wang but had to turn down the role because he was working on another film. He also reminisces about Alec Guinness reading the script for Star Wars on the set.
There is a widescreen DVD release with a different set of special features. That version has several deleted scenes including one with Sherlock Holmes and Watson. I saw it once through Netflix.

The Jerk (1979):
I picked this out of a $4.99 bargain bin for more or less the same reason as Murder by Death. I was allowed to stay up way too late on weekends at an early age. I was a fan of SNL by second grade. I like Steve Martin, but Bernadette Peters was the main draw for me.
I saw her on some late-night talk or variety show back then. I don't even remember what song she performed. I just wanted to see more of her. From what I've read, she had a similar effect on Steve Martin. He wrote the part of Marie for her.
The Jerk is a dim-witted tale about a guileless and clueless but lovable rube who leaves home for the first time and stumbles his way into financial success. It's astoundingly stupid and wacky. A dog is smarter than Navin Johnson. The love story is cute. The duet that they sing is sweet. I like that Mabel King is in it. Pepe Serna has a small role as Punk #1. If nothing else, The Jerk teaches an absurd lesson about the importance of product testing.
I have the 26th Anniversary DVD. The special features include: A ukulele lesson for the song Tonight You Belong To Me taught by Ukulele Gal, more shocking footage from the film reels of Father De Cordoba, the original theatrical trailer, and production notes.
I said I wasn't going to apologize, but I think some form of compensation is warranted. For a (much) smarter comedy combined with romance and a little mystery, I recommend Inconscientes (2004). I wish I owned a copy. I could use it to wash off the stink of those last two.
When it comes to that memory jog I mentioned earlier, the optimal selections for that special purpose are Night of the Witches (1970), The Uncanny (1977), Satan's Cheerleaders (1977), Tourist Trap (1979), Motel Hell (1980), Tales from the Darkside, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, The Ray Bradbury Theater, and Night Flight. I have two out of all of those, and I'd give them both and more for Night of the Witches.